Contest: Kia Teams With Yelp To Give You A Shot At Free Cash

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September 30, 2010

In our world, Thursday is a day for optimism. The weekend's looming, the drink specials are flowing at local theme bistros, and tomorrow's Friday, which is essentially Saturday's little brother. And so, in that spirit of a future bright with hope and caffeine, we bring word of a new contest, sponsored by Kia and social media heavyweight, Yelp.

The contest centers around MyLife-MyWay.net, a website that provides links to entertainment and recreation options in your area. There's no real content on the site; the links are aggregated from Yelp, and clicking them takes you to the appropriate page on Yelp.com.

Also featured prominently on the site's front page is a sweepstakes offer, sponsored by the 2011 Kia Sportage. Like the entertainment listings, the contest is straightforward: just enter your email address and some other contact info, and you could be one of eight lucky folks to walk away with $500 cash. (Drawings are held weekly through November 15.)

Our take?

You know we love simplicity: the web is crowded with sites and promotions that try to do WAY too much. But there is such a thing as being too minimal.

Our biggest complaint is that the site doesn't do anything except promote the sweepstakes. There's no content to speak of. The entertainment links just drag you to Yelp.com, which is a hugely well-known website. Why would anyone stop here first?

And more to the point: why would Kia spend time, energy, and money to build a new website that has to be promoted and promoted and promoted when the company could've just as easily posted this to its Facebook page (which isn't the most engaging thing we've ever seen, FYI) and built up its fanbase on the world's most popular social network? If this site were going to be a longstanding project, that'd be one thing, but the WHOIS record says that the domain was just purchased this summer, and frankly, we'd be surprised to see it linger past December. Smells like a waste to us.